The poor General Geng was at a total loss when being scolded like this. It was said that Zhong Dayou finally helped him come back home.

Gu Tingye a.s.sumed that the emperor actually pitied Old General Geng a lot.

In State Shu where the people were simple and honest, the most common way of solving a problem was taking swift and ruthless action. Most of the time, people dealt with their affairs with violence. No problem was too big as long as it could be solved with knives. Perhaps Old General Geng hadn"t seen the extremely aggressive kind of creatures like the civil officials. Most of them looked gentle and graceful but actually were very ruthless deep down. They never fought others with their hands but only with their mouths. Moreover, with a pen in their hands, they were able to curse the your ancestors as well as the nephew of the second uncle of your aunt just because they owed a debt to the wh.o.r.ehouse. That was called killing with no trace of blood.

The second day, the statements which accused Old General Geng were sent to the Cabinet like the snowflakes.

According to the feudal ethic code in ancient times, one"s blood mother was actually less important than his legal mother. If an illegal son made achievements, only his legal mother would be given the credit and his blood mother wouldn"t be mentioned at all(Perhaps her life might be easier than before). If the son insisted on honoring his blood mother, he had to let his legal mother enjoy the glory first, then his blood mother.

Old General Geng really felt wronged, because he had no intention to fight against the great feudal ethic code at all.

In fact, the situation in the royal family could be different.

Before Empress Dowager Sheng An became an empress dowager, she hadn"t been a consort but actually an empress who had been enn.o.bled through a ceremony. On the contrary, Empress Dowager Sheng De had been an Imperial n.o.ble Consort before she became an empress dowager, which meant that her blood son had never been the emperor. So why should she be treated more respectfully?

Obviously, those civil officials tried to mislead the emperor by focusing on a single mistake of Old General Geng and making an issue of one sentence he had said.

When the emperor had just ascended the throne, he faced many such civil officials and got confused because of those men"s words. As a result, he had conferred the t.i.tle of Empress Dowager on two women, which gave him a lot of restraint in the royal palace. Every time the emperor thought of that, he would get very regretful.

Perhaps someone had given him some guidance. After the emperor had straightened things out, he decided to take a firm stance, for his mother and also an easier future life of himself. Even after Empress Dowager Sheng De had gone to the imperial temple to cry in front of the memorial tablets of the former emperor, he still stood fast.

After the emperor had dismissed five or six officials who were on the frontline and demoted around ten other officials, the civil officials finally lost their arrogance. In the meantime, the emperor also blamed the sickness of Empress Dowager Sheng De on them, using the accusation of "sowing discord among the royal families, harboring evil designs."

The emperor had won a big victory this time. The only poor guy was Old General Geng who was still pleading illness at home and didn"t dare to meet others.

However, like what Official Yao had said, a tough method like this shouldn"t be used so frequently. This time the emperor had a point and the issue was not relevant to the interests of the country. If the emperor lorded it over those officials every time, his reputation would be ruined.

Minglan nodded. The old man was a fount of wisdom. Official Yao had gone straight to the heart of the matter.

It was better that the emperor could listen to the suggestions of the officials and pool the wisdom of everyone. After all, he and his original followers did not have lots of experience and were still learning to deal with the national affairs. The conditions of the people of the north, south, east and west differed greatly from each other and the official cliques were also numerous and complicated. Once the emperor did something wrong, he couldn"t even shift the blame to others and had to be responsible for his own mistake.

Therefore, Student Gu, had to work hard.

In order not to disappoint the emperor and follow the same old road of Old General Geng, he had to read lots of files at night while a.n.a.lyzing and pondering those papers. When he was at work, he had to listen carefully to the quarrels between those scholars, not daring to slack off for a moment. After he got off work, he had to go to the mourning hall of his brother whom he hated very much to cry. Even if he couldn"t shed any tears, he still had to howl as a sign of his sadness. By living like this, he would no wonder get depressed.

Fortunately, he was a smart guy. Forty-nine days after his brother had died, he was already able to chime in on the imperial court. Moreover, according to Official Yao"s comments, his words showed great expertise.

A few days ago, the salt affairs had caused a heated discussion on the imperial court.

These years, the salt industry had been in a mess. The deals of the illegal salt became a common practice, so the country couldn"t collect taxes from the legal salt deals. All the account books of the salt deals were flawless and the officials and the dealers were of one mind. The former emperor had sent a few groups of people to investigate this, but those people had either returned without accomplishing anything or been bribed and ended up in going back to the capital in a prison van.

Now the emperor wanted to rectify the market order, and the officials became entangled in endless quarrels as usual. Most of them were trying to state that the country couldn"t stand any turbulence anymore and once the investigation was proceeded, the situation would be unsteady again since so many people were going to be involved.

After Gu Tingye had heard them talking for the whole morning, he interrupted the one who had argued in the loudest voice and asked with a modest look on his face, “Let"s put everything else aside. I just want to ask if we are going to deal with the salt affairs or not?”

That official flushed with embarra.s.sment for a while. Then he told the consequences and difficulties again.

Gu Tingye then asked, “So you mean we shouldn"t deal with the affairs and can just leave them like this?”

No matter how those officials tried to change the subject, Gu Tingye only asked one thing, “Is it necessary to deal with the salt affairs for the state and the people?”

The salt tax should occupy one fifth of the national income, but now occupied less than one fiftieth. In such a serious case, no officials dared to say there was no need to rectify the order. For the moment, the imperial court fell into silence. Seeing this situation, the emperor was greatly encouraged.

Great. Since everyone agreed on the necessity of dealing with the salt affairs, the next questions should be, "How to deal with them?" "Who should be in charge of them?", "Should we do it slowly or swiftly?".

Minglan really admired what Gu Tingye had done. This man found the right path quickly. After he had learned the discourse on politics, he already knew about the separation debating method. However, when Gu Tingye was about to discuss the candidate of taking charge of the salt affairs on the imperial court, Minglan couldn"t help but get a bit scared, “Do… you want to go?”

Gu Tingye waved his sleeves and sat on the wooden armchair, saying with a smile, “Don"t worry, I"ve already told His Majesty that I can never do detailed work like this.”

Minglan patted on her chest and let out a sigh of relief.

The life of a woman in the ancient times really was difficult. She didn"t want her husband to become Hai Rui or Yan Song. The best result was being a man like Tan Lun who showed great loyalty, had friends all over the country, was in a high position with matched salary and benefited his descendants.

Seeing her being like this, Gu Tingye pinched her earlobe and said gently, “Don"t worry, His Majesty has planned for this. After the rebellion in the southern area was suppressed, many of the officials in the garrison camps have been replaced. Since most of the first-cla.s.s commanders are loyal to His Majesty, he then decided to deal with the salt affairs.”

Minglan held the man"s arms and smiled like a morning glory. Then she rested her head on his st.u.r.dy shoulder and said in a low voice, “As long as you can stay safe, I don"t care about the high position or great wealth.” Her voice sounded shy and her body felt tender.

Gu Tingye only felt an urge and held Minglan in his arms with a smile on his face. Then he started to touch the place under her waist.

Minglan pressed on his hand which was still going down and said with redness on her face, “We are still observing mourning for your brother right now.”

No contraception measure was one hundred percent effective, let alone that she was in her period right now.

Gu Tingye, with a gloomy look on his face, held Minglan in his arms and rubbed her for a long while. Finally, he stood up and walked to the outside. Seeing his sullen face, Minglan followed him right away and asked what he was going to do.

“Pull the lanterns off.”